I am a beginner farmer. I like growing in general. Since the past 2 years I have been interested in creating an orchard with different types of fruit trees at our property with sandy loam soil here in Zone 5, Michigan. Usually we get a lot of snow here during winters. The summers are not very hot. I have been grafting plums, pluots, apricots, and apples on the following rootstocks (Bud118, Myrobalan) over the past 2 years and planting them in the field. I notice that none of the Japanese plums, Apricots, Pluots that I grafted last year with whip and tongue grafts have taken. Whereas, all the European plums have taken and have been growing. I wonder why is this the case? Have you guys tried whip and tongue for Japanese plums? What rootstocks have given you the most success for plums in Zone 5 or lesser?
Also I don’t know anything about freezing down on the right varieties for a commercial market for all the above stone fruits. I am still doing variety trials. Do you have some good suggestions on the right varieties for different stone fruits?
Any other things I should be looking for in the upcoming years in my beginner orchard endeavor?
Welcome to the site Arjun, I have had less success on Myrobalan rootstocks than on several others. It could be lack of compatibility rather than the type of graft. Whip and tongue should work well on all stonefruits. Probably the best rootstock for growing most plums, Plumcots, Pluerry and Pluots is Lovell peach. If you get the timing right, and a good technique most varieties do well in Lovell peach.
Dennis
Kent, wa
@DennisD That is very interesting to know. Do you know of any specific positive characteristics in terms of fruit size, fruit quality, yield, disease tolerance, etc which is better in Lovell Peach rootstock than in Myrobalan for plums, pluots and apricots? I was thinking after all the research online that Myrobalan was supposed to give the most compatibility for all these stone fruits, since it is a more direct member of the family. But the success has not been that great. Some people said that the time I grafted last year was very late (lot of Japanese scionwood I had bought from fruitwoodnursery California had already woken up by the time I grafted them in April and May)
Actually the most versatile rootstock is Lovell peach, if you want to improve its versatility you can graft Adara plum or Cherry plum (p cerasifera) let that variety develop a series of scaffolds, then topwork the scaffolds with stonefruit including almonds that you wish to grow! I probably have about 40 varieties that I have Grafted so far. Of those this year maybe 15 will fruit. Below is a pic of one blossom cluster of Obilnaya, currently the most favorite plum we grow. If I were to select only two fantastic plums it would be Obilnaya and Sweet Treat pluery.
Dennis
Kent, Wa
A pic of one blossom cluster of this two year old graft, where I used cherry plum to top work my sweet cherry tree into plums
